7 Quick Takes Friday (Volume 3)

7 Quick Takes from this week:

- 1 - 

Have you ever heard of a babymoon?  It's a fantastic idea that some brilliant pregnant woman made up to reward herself for the 9-month journey.  It's a little getaway to reconnect with your hubby and spoil yourselves before Baby arrives.  Most couples opt to take their babymoons in the second trimester because the morning sickness is gone, and they aren't too big and uncomfortable for travel.  

Philip and I went on our babymoon to Kansas City last weekend, and it was faaaaaaaaaaaaaabulous!  Philip's amazing mom came and stayed with the kiddos, and everything went off without a hitch.  I cannot sing my mother-in-law's praises enough.  She is simply the best!  I'll write a longer post about our babymoon another time.

- 2 - 

In addition to watching the kiddos while we were away on our babymoon, Philip's mom potty trained Jane!!!  Hooray!  It turns out Jane just needed to hear from someone other than her parents how this potty business works, and "Mimi" (that's what the kids call Philip's mom) was just the person Jane needed.  Also, it didn't hurt that Mimi did a special song and dance and gave Jane a "potty present" (little items wrapped up in tissue paper from the Target dollar section) every time she successfully went on the potty.  

- 3 - 

One of my favorite things about Philip is that he loves coming up with fun, creative ways to encourage good behavior from the kids. (I suppose that's one of the perks of being married to a pediatric resident, huh?)

By the time we got back from our babymoon, Jane had a few days of potty training under her belt.  We decided to continue the potty presents for every successful trip for another day before changing up the system.  Philip created a new and improved sticker chart to facilitate the process.  Here it is:

Every time Jane successfully uses the potty, she puts a sticker on an empty square of her sticker map.  When she reaches a colored square, she gets to draw a wrapped item out of the potty present bag.  The picture at the end of the map is a Hello Kitty lunchbox that Jane's had her eye on for awhile.  When she completes her sticker map, she gets the lunchbox.  This way, Jane continues to get rewards for her potty training, but she doesn't expect a present every time.  Great system, Philip!  I am pleased to report that Miss Jane completed her sticker map tonight, and we're hoping to pick up her Hello Kitty lunchbox sometime tomorrow.

- 4 - 

Oh!  I forgot to tell you!  Remember how I was worried about failing the gestational diabetes test and that Baby was measuring 3 weeks ahead at that appointment?  Well, good news!  I passed, Baby was measuring right on track at my last appointment, and my weight hadn't budged at all.  So, I'm going to chalk it all up to those weeks being a big growth spurt.  Phew!  

- 5 - 

 Ever since we had a big hailstorm about two months ago, Jane has been struggling to go to sleep at nighttime.  She started insisting on sleeping with "quiet music" and her lights on.  She wasn't falling asleep for a few hours with the lights on, so we decided something had to change, and we decided to find a new nightlight/noise machine for her.  

Since we already had the sticker map system going for potty training, we thought we'd make the nightlight/noise machine a reward in place of a potty present for one of the colored squares.  

We found this great Munchkin Nursery Projector & Sound System and bought it at Babies 'R Us.

I love everything about it, and it's working like a charm!  It didn't hurt that it was well within our budget, and Jane was excited about it since she thought it was a reward that she earned for doing so well with her potty training.  Win-win!    

- 6 - 

Now that I said that the nightlight/noise machine is working like a charm, a severe weather system with thunder and golfball-sized hail is moving our direction.  Hopefully Jane (and our new roof) make it through ok!  

- 7 - 

We celebrated our 5-year wedding anniversary on May 31.  We decided we'd try to recreate one of our favorite photos from our wedding day while on our babymoon.  We had a daytime wedding and luncheon reception, and we had the whole evening to ourselves.  Our photographer tagged along as we took a limo ride downtown and had dinner in our tux and white dress at a fancy restaraunt.  He took this great shot of us making a champagne toast on our wedding night:

Here's our recreated photo from a fun restaurant on our babymoon. Our server took it on Philip's phone.  Instead of champagne, Philip has some wine, and I was sipping on a virgin piña colada.  Cheers!

Want to join the fun?

Head on over to Jen Fulwiler's blog at Conversion Diary and post your own 7 Quick Takes!